SERM at that time, when the grofs of the naVI. tion were ripening themselves for deftruc

tion by their obftinate unbelief and impenitency, there was a remnant, to whom the peculiar privileges of God's people were appropriated :` And they are characterized by the election of grace, as in oppofition to works: For it is faid, ver. 6. if by grace, then it is no more of works: Otherwife grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more grace: Otherwife work is no more work. The meaning feems to be plainly this. There are but two ways by which men can be rendered acceptable to God; either by an exact fufilling of his law, whereby they are intitled to the reward as a debt, which was the proud claim of the Jews; or by the free gift of pardon upon fincere repentance and amendment, which is the gracious tenor of the christian covenant. Between those two, men were at that time divided in their hopes, and the methods they propofed for obtaining the favour of God; and they were utterly inconfiftent: So that when fome endeavoured to compound them, by joining with the faith of Christ and the obedience of the Gospel, the neceffary obfervance of the ceremonial law,

the

the apoftle pronounces fuch an attempt al-SERM. together vain, and declares in effect, that VI. we must hold to the one and reject the other.

For he fays, Gal. v. 4. according to this fcheme, Chrift is become of no effect to you: Whofoever of you are juftified by the law, ye are fallen from grace.

This notion of grace, so much infifted on in the writings of St. Paul, is intended to fhow the obligations we are under to the mercy of God, in forgiving our fins, and accepting us: It cuts off all pretences to merit, and excludes boafting. Rom. iii. 27. Where is boafting then? it is excluded. By what law? of works? nay; but by the law of faith. But we are not to understand all this, as if the gospel were a mere unconditionate declaration of pardon and offer of falvation: On the contrary, it establishes the neceffary and perpetual obligation of the moral law, and is defigned to rescue men from the dominion of fin: As the apostle fhows, Rom. vi. 14. Sin fhall not have dominion over you: For ye are not under the law, but under grace. At the same time, he teaches, that it is the groffeft abuse of the gospel grace to imagine, that because we are under it, we may take a liberty to

SERM. fin: For, as the Jews by circumcifion were VI. bound to the obfervance of the whole law,

which required a perfect unfinning conformity to it, as the condition of acceptance, according to the tenor of that covenant, do this and live; but that law, giving the knowledge of fin, could neither deliver men from the power, nor the punishment of it: So, by being initiated into christianity, we become bound to obedience, in the merciful fense, which the gofpel indifpenfably requires, and accepts: That is, to fincerity, not finless perfection. But if we fin wilfully, and obftinately, under grace, or under the christian profeffion; fo far from being thoroughly juftified, we are rendered obnoxious to inevitable condemnation: For fays the apoftle at the 23d ver. the wages of fin is death.

Secondly, let us confider the meaning of juftification by faith without the law. That it is the doctrine of St. Paul cannot be doubted. It is the refult of a long difcourfe on the general depravity of men, rendering them liable to the wrath of God; and the divine mercy in fetting forth Chrift to be a propitiation for fin, Rom. iii. 28. Therefore

5

We

we conclude that a man is justified by faithSER M. without deeds of the law; which doctrine VI. he says, at the 31ft ver. of the fame chapter, does not make void the law, but establish it rather. It does not derogate from the honour and obligation of the moral immutable precepts, which are taken into the christian fcheme, as effential; tho' the ceremonial institutions are declared unneceffary, and unprofitable to juftification. It is almoft needless to mention particular paffages from this apostle; his epiftles abound with fo many, which every reader muft obferve. What expreffions can be more ftrong and full than thofe in Gal. ii. 15, 16. fhewing that not only the Gentiles, but the Jews themselves, with all their great privileges, must obtain forgiveness, and the favour of God, in this way only? We who are Jews by nature, and not finners of the Gentiles: Knowing that a man is justified, not by the deeds of the law, but by the faith of Christ, even we have believed in Jefus Chrift, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: For by the works of the law fhall no flesh be justified.

To understand this we may obferve, that christianity being a revelation from heaven,

that

SERM. that it may have any good effect upon us, VI. we must believe it. And accordingly it is obvious that faith is what the gospel requires as a first and fundamental duty: That we fhould believe in God, and believe in our Lord Jefus Chrift. Whereas by the religion of the Jews, especially in their latter days, and of those who endeavoured to blend Judaism with chriftianity, the great stress was laid on a fcrupulous and exact observance of the ceremonial appointments: Therefore the gospel is called by St. Paul the faith, and the other the law. Thus in the first to the Rom. and 5th ver. he declares the end of the apostleship which he received from Christ, that it was for obedience to the faith. What can the meaning of that expreffion be, but obedience to the law of Chrift, or the gospel, which God published by him to the gentile world? as it is faid, Acts vi. that a great number of the priests were obedient to the faith. And in the third of the Gal. and 2d ver. this only would I learn of you, received ye the fpirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? and ver. 5 be that miniftreth the fpirit, and worketh miracles among you, doth be it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Where

7.